Tag Archives: draft communications data bill

Official: the snoopers’ charter is dead in this parliament

By Stephen Tall | Thu 9th May 2013 - 10:30 am

One element missing from the Queen’s Speech was the Communications Data Bill, aka the ‘snoopers’ charter’. No surprise to Lib Dems: Nick Clegg torpedoed it last month.

So I had a momentary spasm of concern to see on ConservativeHome this story from Mark Wallace: The Snoopers’ Charter comes sneaking back. Again.

I asked Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert (who’s played a crucial role in safeguarding civil liberties this parliament, including on this Bill) if there were any truth in it, and got an immediate reply…

@stephentall @wallaceme it’s not coming back. At least this parliament.

— Julian Huppert

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Posted in News | Also tagged alex carlile, civil liberties, home office, jonathan calder, julian huppert, mark wallace, snoopers charter and tim farron | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg: Snoopers’ charter is not going to happen with Liberal Democrats in Government

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 25th April 2013 - 12:35 pm

Julian Huppert has already joyfully welcomed Nick Clegg’s decision to veto Tory plans on web snooping. However, I thought I’d give you the chance to hear Nick Clegg’s words from Call Clegg this morning. I certainly wasn’t expecting such an unequivocal statement. He has given himself no wiggle room at all. This is what he said:

What people have dubbed the snoopers’ charter, I just have to be clear with you, that’s not going to happen. In other words, the idea that the Government will pass a law which means there would be a record kept of every website you visit,

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Posted in News | Also tagged call clegg, featured, nick clegg and snoopers charter | 9 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes…I agree with Nick. He’s right to kill the Snoopers’ Charter

By Julian Huppert MP | Thu 25th April 2013 - 9:35 am

On 18th March 2010 Nick Clegg gave a speech to Privacy International about Lib Dem plans to roll back the surveillance state. He said:

The Conservatives talk a good game on privacy but scratch beneath the surface and it is clear they cannot be trusted to roll back Labour’s surveillance state… Only the Liberal Democrats will bring an end to the endless snooping on innocent people.

We committed ourselves at the last election to ending ID cards, curbing CCTV and stopping the Home Office encroachment into our lives. Enough of citizens as suspects. Enough of “endless snooping” by the Government.

One of our …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged nick clegg and snoopers charter | 15 Comments

An open letter to Jeremy Browne MP…Part 2: Problems at the Home Office

By Mark Pack | Mon 22nd April 2013 - 10:25 am

Dear Jeremy,

In part 1 I explained why the Interception of Communications Commissioner is a failed regulator and one the Home Office should be fixing, yet your civil servants have been reluctant to do so. That should give a pause for thought about the proposals Home Office civil servants keep on pushing to extend the ability of the government to snoop on what we do online.

So too should the way in which the Home Office regularly changes its views of what counts as being in the national interest or vital for the fight against crime, and indeed makes outlandish claims …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged freedom of information, information commissioner, Interception of Communications Commissioner, jeremy browne and Mark Pack | 3 Comments

Times: ‘Cameron is told to drop snooping on web users’

By Stephen Tall | Mon 22nd April 2013 - 8:05 am

Today’s Times front page is dominated by the news that nine cyber-security experts and academics have issued a stark warning to David Cameron to halt ‘sweeping plans to hand the security services the power to snoop on emails, website visits and social media sites’: “they remain as naive and technically dangerous as when they were floated by the last government,” they warn.

The paper notes the opposition both of Nick Clegg — who highlighted his disagreement with the draft Bill last December — and of Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert, who points out: “Where we lead, other countries would follow, snooping on their citizens’ legal activities. … The case for these proposals is massively out-weighed by the cost and the harm to privacy, here and overseas.”

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Posted in News | Also tagged angela sasse, david cameron, featured, ian brown, julian huppert, nick clegg, ross anderson, the times and theresa may | 4 Comments

An open letter to Jeremy Browne MP on civil liberties… Part 1: The failed regulator

By Mark Pack | Sun 21st April 2013 - 10:00 am

Dear Jeremy

I doubt that in amongst all the ludicrously large number of issues that pass across the desk of a minister, and a Home Office one no less, you will have noticed a small victory I scored over the Home Office recently.

But I hope you’ll give a pause for thought to the implications of the ruling the Information Commissioner made in my favour over the Home Office (decision notice reference FS50469527).

Partly it’s because of what it says about the never-quite-dead proposals for a huge expansion of monitoring of our online activity. Partly it’s because of what the case reveals …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged freedom of information, home office, information commissioner and Interception of Communications Commissioner | 3 Comments

Nick Clegg’s ‘Letter from the Leader’: “no use standing up for civil liberties in opposition if you forget all about them in power”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th December 2012 - 11:55 am

Nick was spoiled for choice this week on which liberal touchstone issues to focus on in his latest weekly missive… Whether to talk about torpedoing of the Draft Data Communications Bill or perhaps his pro-reform/anti-drugs stance following this week’s Home Affairs select committee report — in fact he talks about both, even linking them to his pro-Leveson position. Manna from heaven to Lib Dem activists. The only surprise is that this week’s equal marriage proposals aren’t mentioned…

Do you want the Home Secretary to be able to

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Posted in News | Also tagged drugs, home affairs select committee, letter from the leader and nick clegg | 15 Comments

Opinion: The case for increased surveillance hasn’t been made

By James Baker | Thu 13th December 2012 - 12:43 pm

At the heart of the draft Communications Bill is a drive to make it easier for a range of officials to access information about people’s communications. The Home Office maintains that officals need this push-button surveillance in order to help fight emotive crimes such as terrorism and paedophiles.

Despite widespread criticisms of the bill put forward by the Home Office to achieve those ends, most politicians appear to be uncritically accepting their underlying premise – that officials need to be granted more powers to snoop on citizens. Just take for instace Clegg’s statement on the bill:
“They were very clear that …

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Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes … Communications Data Bill cannot proceed

By Julian Huppert MP | Tue 11th December 2012 - 1:00 pm

Last week the Home Secretary claimed that anyone who opposes the Draft Communications Data Bill, dubbed the Snoopers Charter, was supporting paedophiles and terrorists.

She argued, “Criminals, terrorists and paedophiles will want MPs to vote against this bill. Victims of crime, police and the public will want them to vote for it. It’s a question of whose side you’re on.”

We’ve heard that argument before. Tony Blair used similar arguments to

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Posted in News | Also tagged home secretary and snoopers charter | 8 Comments

Clegg set to veto Communications Data Bill

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th December 2012 - 10:42 pm

Excellent:

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 7 Comments

Is this the week Nick Clegg will ditch support for the draft Data Communications Bill?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st December 2012 - 5:50 pm

The days of the draft Data Communications Bill (aka internet snoopers’ charter) may well be numbered if reports in the last few days are true that Nick Clegg is about to ditch the controversial plans. Here’s the BBC’s James Landale:

Party sources say leader Nick Clegg is ready to use a parliamentary report, due out next week, to oppose the plans. The draft Communications Data Bill would allow police access to details of people’s email and internet use,

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Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 10 Comments

Oh dear. Interception of Communications Commissioner does it again

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th October 2012 - 11:50 am

I’ve blogged just once or twice or thrice about the many failings of the Interception of Communications Commissioner and his dreadful record, failing to ask the right questions, unwilling to investigate evidence of widespread abuses and ignoring questions over cost.

And now he’s spoken out over the highly controversial Draft Communications Data Bill – not against its extensive online snooping provisions or even to call for stronger safeguards (such as to remedy his own failures to look into strong evidence that …

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Posted in News | Also tagged Interception of Communications Commissioner | 1 Comment

Information Commissioner sounds warning over Draft Communications Data Bill

By Mark Pack | Tue 16th October 2012 - 8:27 pm

An important intervention today in the debate over the Draft Communications Data Bill. The Information Commissioner has issued a strongly-worded warning about its impact if implemented:

Plans to monitor all Britons’ online activity risk uncovering “incompetent criminals and accidental anarchists” rather than serious offenders, the information commissioner has warned…

Christopher Graham said the “really scary people” could simply avoid detection by changing their behaviour…

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Posted in News | Also tagged information commissioner and Interception of Communications Commissioner | 3 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Home Office has got it wrong about online snooping ‘safeguards’

By NewsHound | Thu 20th September 2012 - 9:25 am

The Voice’s Mark Pack has taken to the (web)pages of The Spectator to dispute the case put by Home Office Minister James Brokenshire about the Draft Communications Data Bill:

What do you do if a regulator has failed? Leave them unreformed and instead give them greater powers? That is the line Home Office Minister James Brokenshire is arguing.

The regulator in question is the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the powers relate to online monitoring. For the Draft Communications Data Bill would not only give the government far more scope to monitor what we do online, but Brokenshire also argues we should be

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Interception of Communications Commissioner, james brokenshire and Mark Pack | Leave a comment

Opinion: Who’s phoning who? (with apologies to Aretha Franklin)

By Marisha Ray | Wed 29th August 2012 - 9:15 am

A year ago I heard that six degrees of separation are now down to four courtesy of the internet and social media. Some, if not most, in politics are “connectors”, people who know many and who like introducing them to each other, who make friends fast, keep them for life and remember all about them; that’s not just true of politics, but of successful people in most walks of life.

Will there be any point in let’s say 12 years time, in keeping information on who has been in touch with whom during the previous year? I choose 12 to match …

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Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

What Lib Dem members think about internet surveillance and free speech

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th July 2012 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 560 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results. (Apologies for the delay in reporting this one, by the way: slipped through the net.)

68% Lib Dem members oppose Draft

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged internet surveillance, julian huppert and section five | 5 Comments

In other news… Thurso on banking, Ward on immigration, Swales on G4S & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Sun 15th July 2012 - 5:25 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

John Thurso MP to lead banking inquiry (John O’Groat Journal)

CAITHNESS, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP John Thurso has been elected to lead an inquiry into how the banking system is run. The Lib Dem politician has been chosen as one of five representatives who will

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Posted in News | Also tagged bristol council, bristol mayoral election, city of london corporation, clive skelton, david ward, duncan hames, ian swales, independent commission on banking, john thurso, jon rogers, nick clegg, patrick streeter, shaffaq mohammed, sheffield council, simon cook and tim clement-jones | Leave a comment

Two people wrongly detained after communications interception errors

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th July 2012 - 8:55 am

For the last decade and more, the publication of the Interception of Communication Commissioner’s Annual Reports has gone largely unremarked, even when they have contained news of copious errors or news (by omission) of a Commissioner not investigating evidence of widespread breaking of the rules he is meant to oversee (see my previous posts).

This year, however, with the Draft Communications Bill hanging over us and given a helping hand by a deft MP, it is rather different, as this sampling of coverage shows:

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Posted in News | Also tagged Interception of Communications Commissioner | 2 Comments

Lib Link: How does David Cameron charm the Liberal Democrats?

By Sara Bedford | Fri 13th July 2012 - 2:17 pm

Over at his day job at MHP Communications, Mark Pack turns his thoughts to how David Cameron should react to , stating that the Prime Minister has ‘two tricky problems to mull over’.

The first, and most talked about, is how to get his party to back some measure of Lords reform else risk seeing Liberal Democrats outside ministerial ranks (and even some inside) see it as open season on future legislation as it goes through Parliament. The sort of effective and tight whipping operations that saw Liberal Democrats in both Houses votes for a range of measures they did

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Posted in LibLink and News | Also tagged coalition, david cameron, lords reform, Mark Pack and party funding | 2 Comments

Why doesn’t Theresa May want mandatory tracking of all cars?

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th July 2012 - 2:25 pm

Because it is an absurd idea may well be your answer to that question even before you’ve reached the end of it. But bear with me a moment.

Imagine a government policy to have mandatory tracking devices in all motor vehicles, which would record all the journeys and store the data. The data would normally be private but could be accessed by the police and others if they subsequently discovered a reason to suspect someone. (You may be able to guess where I am going with this…)

It would cost a fair …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, interception modernisation programme, Interception of Communications Commissioner and theresa may | 14 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… Draft Communications Data Bill: send me your evidence

By Julian Huppert MP | Tue 3rd July 2012 - 12:22 pm

Today is the first meeting of the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill. Over the next few months, we’ll be taking evidence from key witnesses, and making recommendations to the Government about how the Bill should change.

As I’m sure you all know, the Bill as it stands is simply unacceptable. It’s vital, therefore, that we’re asking the right questions and posing the right, technical solutions from the off.

The Committee will run a formal, public call for evidence starting very shortly. The more evidence we get, the better, so my first request is that every single Member with an …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged paul strasburger | 2 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… Libel reform is an admirable prize for Liberal Democrats

By Julian Huppert MP | Fri 22nd June 2012 - 11:53 am

In my experience, Second Reading debates are often lengthy affairs. Everyone wants to say their piece; few have something new to contribute.

The second reading of the Defamation Bill last week was no exception. We even heard the odd diatribe against threatening behaviour and internet trolls; some of which belied a complete misunderstanding of what we were actually debating.

But, for once, there was some clear consensus. In the words of John Kampfner, the chief executive of Index on Censorship:

When we launched the Libel Reform Campaign in 2009, only the Liberal Democrats backed change. Now the cause has cross party support.

Campaigned …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged defamation bill | 2 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… Communications data: we have to get this right

By Julian Huppert MP | Thu 14th June 2012 - 12:40 pm

Many years ago my father gave me some advice: ‘don’t get it right, get it written’. If you want to do something properly you need to have a draft. That way you can go back and improve it.

Today sees the publication of the Draft Communications Data Bill. It is a first version, not a final text, and one which will be given the time and proper processes to change. It’s hard to overemphasise how different that is to the usual Parliamentary process.

A special Select Committee will go through the issues raised in the Bill, and make suggestions on how to improve it. I’ll be on that Committee, and between now and November we will be asking experts and members of the public to comment on it, and suggest where it needs to be changed.

It’s thanks to Lib Dem pressure that we now have a vital opportunity to get this right. If left to itself, the Home Office would simply have announced this Bill – or something worse – as a fait accompli, and whipped people to support it. Nick Clegg intervened to stop that from happening.

And already the Draft Bill is better than the one the Home Office proposed, as revealed a few months ago. Already there are more safeguards than there were going to be – but we are not there yet.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ripa | 26 Comments